Sometimes It Helps To Think

[dabtl]

I am not a big one on thinking things out before jumping into a project.

I had my rear BO lights working when the tail lights should be. Turn signals blinked the BO lights on the rear.

Now, this is the second deuce and had the trailer pig tail sliced in two when I got it. I spent the better part of the week fixing that. Took some time, but when that is all you have, it is good therapy.

So, I figured I had done something wrong on the trailer pig tail. Got the multi-meter out, got the tape and proceeded to figure out how much I need to unwrap to work on it.

Then it hit me. Bang! What if someone, like an eighteen year old, had worked on the truck without knowing or caring what they were doing?

So, I unplugged the rear lights and changed the circuits till it worked. Then I got out the wet cloth and checked the wire numbers. Bingo! I was right.

Someone had changed the plugs incorrectly on the tail lights. Not me. Honest.

I am now a believer that dumb luck beats brains every time.

 

[Stan]

Makes you feel like you won the lottery.

 

[WillWagner]

That is a good feeling when you finger out a problem like that.

 

[papabear]

That same thing happened to our little band of brothers!!! Was gonna tow (an did) a trailer to the GA Rally behind the M109 but just couldn't get the friggin trailer lights to act right!!

After Troy, Tony and Dion did some in depth wire tracing...BINGO...someone...somewhere had not wired the trailer plug right...i just wonder how that trailer passed pre trip inspections all that time before we got it??

I know the truck plug is correct...cause we can hook to anything else and it works fine

 

[rbeasley66]

Years ago when I was just starting out as a young mechanic, the shop put me to work on a truck that had no brake lights. Now a seasoned mechanic had worked on it, off and on, for two days. He started at the front checking fuses, the turn signal and the brake wires. I went over to the rear, took the tail light lens off and found both brake lights bulbs were burned out. Two new bulbs and the brakes lights were on. Just a different way of thinking I guess. I earned some points that day as the young guy.

 

[Stan Leschert]

Yup. Test the simple stuff first. Do not over complicate things. If it still does not work, well then you can go digging! Just remember K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

That Credo does work!

 

[airmech3839]

was at a buddies house and had similar issue but a bathroom light....he said he tried a new bulb but couldnt get it to work...so I asked if he had another bulb that was known to be good....we took one out of the lamp next to his bed and bingo it worked in the "must be bad socket cause my new bulb didnt work". He was floored that he didnt check that bulb in another socket he knew worked...easy stuff sometimes is the ones we scratch our heads...sometimes we overthink it and overlook the simple stuff....

check and recheck before tearing apart!!

 

[dittle]

Another one that gets mis-wired a lot are the headlights. Easiest way to determine if they're mis-wired is if on low beam you high beam indicator glows a little bit (you will still see it get brighter when going to high). It was that way on my deuce, once I changed it over the light was off on low and on wi th high.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

The same intelligence used to create the problem CANNOT be use to correct it.